Sangsari or Sangisari is an Iranian language spoken mainly in the Semnan and Tehran provinces of Iran, especially in the Sangesar (Mahdi Shehr) town and in several surrounding villages. There are around 50,000 Sangsari speakers.
Classification
Ethnologue classifies Sangsari in the Semnani group of Northwestern Iranian languages that also includes Lasgerdi, Semnani, and Sorkhei. Glottolog classifies the Sangsari language within the Komisenian subgroup of the Northwest Iranian branch of the Iranian languages. Glottolog's classification has also been adopted by Wiktionary. Whereas the Komisenian languages consist of Sangsari, Lasgerdi, Sorkhei and Aftari languages the Semnani languages consist of Semnani and Biyabuneki. Sangsari is also, linguistically, close to Zaza, spoken in Anatolia. Jost Gippert classifies Sangsari, Zaza and Balochi together within the Hyrcanian subgroup.
Phonology
The vowels of Sangsari are. The consonants are the same as in Persian.
Grammar
Sangisari, similar to Semnani, Zaza and Tati, has a two-gender, case and ergative system. It distinguishes two numbers in pronouns, singular and plural, and marks two cases, the direct (nominative) and the oblique and distinguishes between masculine and feminine in the third person singular for both the direct and oblique case. Distinguishing them from all other Western Iranian languages, the typological feature of grammatical gender marking within the copula is exhibited by Sangsari, alongside Semnani, Momenabadi, Zaza, and Tati.
